Buddy System
by BrilliantDarkness
Summary: Case fic. Women out clubbing together are being targeted. One killed immediately and the other kidnapped. Now it's up to our merry band of profilers to find out who and why. Whole team. alludes to events in "Never My Love". Please review.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello fair readers! It has been ages since I have written a case fic so here is one. I actually presented this case in one of my Reid/Maggie stories and felt compelled to write the actual case. For those unfamiliar with my work, my case fics are always done in present tense and script format. It's just how things work for me. As always, please let me know what you think whether you like or not.-J**

It is a relatively typical Friday night in Toledo, OH as two young women emerge from a club laughing. They have obviously been drinking and are leaning on each other for physical support as they make their way down the sidewalk. They are talking to each other rather incoherently about the club they had just left. As they pass an alley, a figure emerges and begins to follow them until they are past the straggling crowd outside of the club. Once the women are sufficiently isolated the figure steps forward and strikes one of the women on the head. She falls unconscious and the blood alcohol level of her friend causes the other woman to fall to the ground as well. Before she can react with her dulled reflexes, the figure is upon her, strangling her with his bare hands.

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In the conference room at the BAU, J.J. was pointing to pictures of four dead women on the screen.

J.J.: Toledo, Ohio.

She paused at this knowing that the last time the team had gone to Ohio, Morgan had been shot and Reid kidnapped and…assaulted. She still couldn't even allow the word "rape" into her thoughts. Looking at her team, most looked a little stung by the mention of Ohio and Morgan actually grimaced but Reid made no indication that this was anything other than just another case.

J.J.: They have four bodies so far. The women were all out for a night on the town and were in pairs. One woman is killed immediately and left near to where the attack takes place while the other is taken and found dead a week later within blocks of her home.

It was Thursday and knowing that the next night would be a prime hunting night for the unsub, the team decided to leave for Toledo as quickly as possible.

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Rossi's voice: "The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy."-Alfred North Whitehead

Prentiss: So these women are doing what we would tell them to do and using the buddy system and he's getting them anyway?

J.J.: It certainly looks that way. Apparently he likes his brunettes because those are the ones he took while he quickly killed and left a redhead and a blonde. Do you guys think it would slow him down if we issued a statement urging all women to stay in larger groups of three or more?

Hotch: I think it would. If there is just one unsub as it looks like there is, he wouldn't be able to control that many.

Prentiss: How sure are we that there is only one unsub?

Rossi: Well, there is a minor head injury to the woman that is taken showing that she was incapacitated while her friend is strangled and there is only one type of woman being taken. If this is a team, you would think that both women might be taken together.

Reid: Also there has only been biological material from one contributor found on the bodies.

Morgan: That doesn't necessarily mean anything, with two of them only one might be allowed or even interested in sexually assaulting the victim.

Reid: I'm not just talking about semen, there have been hairs found on the bodies of all four women. Hairs that came from a man's head and they were all from one man; unfortunately not one that is in CODIS.

Rossi: What's the timeline again?

Reid: He attacked first on a Saturday and the next week on Friday but he always dumps the body on Thursday. When found, the second woman has only been dead a few hours.

Morgan: How did the local PD know that the women were together to even know that one was missing?

Hotch: The unsub left the missing woman's cell phone in the purse of the dead woman. Plus there was blood from the head wound that did not match the victim at the scene.

Rossi: He's taunting. The question is, is he only taunting law enforcement?

Morgan turns to the laptop where Garcia is waiting patiently for some way to help her babies.

Morgan: Baby girl, I need you to look into anything at all that might connect the kidnapped women. The others don't seem to be of any consequence to the unsub but there might be more linking the targeted women than hair color.

Garcia: I'm all over it my vision. Garcie out.

Hotch: Morgan, I'd like you to go to the attack sites. Rossi head over to the secondary dump sites. Prentiss, please interview the families of the kidnapped women and Reid I need you to head over to the coroner's and see what you can get from the autopsy reports. J.J. please get the word out that women heading to the clubs, or anywhere else after dark, for that matter need to stay in groups of three or more. Do not limit this to just the club scene. If he can't get what he wants at the clubs, he's likely to go trolling elsewhere. I don't know how much good it will do but try to emphasize that excessive alcohol consumption seems to be part of how these women are so easily overtaken. Also, I want a line set up for tips. Even as careful as he's being, someone may have seen something.

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Hotch and J.J. walk into the police station to be met almost immediately by a tall redheaded woman in khaki pants and a button up men's styled shirt.

Hotch: Detective Rogers? I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner and this is SSA Jennifer Jareau.

Det. Rogers: Please call me Charlotte. I'm so glad you're here agents. Is this the whole team?

Hotch: Far from it, the rest are spread out. It didn't seem that we had much time to waste. Do you have a place for us to set up?

Det. Rogers: Right this way, we have everything you asked for right in here, including my case files and all of my notes.

Hotch: So you are the primary on both cases?

Det. Rogers: Yeah, lucky me. So I'll leave you to it then. Just let me know if there is anything I can help with.

J.J.: I am going to need to issue a statement to the media so that we can help women protect themselves without causing a panic.

Hotch: It may also help flush the unsub out if we make a statement acknowledging him and also making it harder for him to find his prey.

Det. Rogers: Right this way, I'm sure we can do this on the front steps Agent Jareau.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, shorter than normal chapter I know but I'm still profiling this creep myself. Got no clue who he is or why he's doing this. Hmmm...maybe I should call the BAU:-) Enjoy and please let me know your thoughts.-J**

David Rossi stands near the end of an alley where Christa Casey had been found the Friday before. He holds the crime scene photos in front of him to complete the image that police had come upon when they were summoned.

Rossi: Damn, she's what 21? Barely? What a stinking place to die.

Rossi continues to survey this, literally, stinking spot. Apparently this space is often used as a bathroom for the neighborhood homeless and/or drug addicted population. Looking up from the picture in his hands, the image of Christa's final moments comes clear to his mind's eye. Her blonde hair was pulled up at the time of her death and she wore dark washed jeans that Rossi was pretty sure the kids were calling "skinny jeans" these days. He could see her walking with her friend and he knew from the toxicology panel that they would have been drunk enough to need to lean on each other to stay upright. Rossi suspected that when her companion, the brunette Ella Dawson, was struck on the head that it would have caused Christa to fall as well allowing the unsub to overtake her. The cause of death had been reported as manual strangulation. The fear she must have felt is still nearly palpable to the seasoned profiler as he makes his mental notes to share with the team later.

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Meanwhile Morgan is walking around the area where Ella Dawson was found earlier that day. Looking at the pictures of the carefully posed and clothed body he can see these are not the clothes of a woman hitting the clubs.

Morgan: So I incapacitate her, take her, sexually assault her for days, strangle her and then dress her in different clothes and lay her here just two blocks from her home looking like she just fell asleep. Why?

He puts a hand over his face as if blocking out his surroundings will help an answer come into his head faster. Ultimately he just sighs and heads back for the SUV.

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Reid knocks timidly on the half open door to the local morgue.

Reid: Dr. Edmonds? I'm Spencer Reid with the FBI; could I ask you a few questions?

Dr. Edmonds: Of course, I'm going to go on a limb and assume that you are wondering about the young women who have been murdered lately.

Reid: I am. I need to know how they died and more than that if there is anything linking them that might be some sort of signature.

Dr. Edmonds: Signature? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that. Every one of the women was strangled with bare hands.

Reid: But is there anything else common to the bodies? Something that links them or something that was done to each that doesn't directly have to do with the manner of death.

Dr. Edmonds: Not on the bodies discovered in the alleys but on the kidnapped women, they had been branded.

Reid: Branded? As in cattle?

Dr. Edmonds: They each had a heart with an arrow through it branded on the backs of their necks. Judging from the amount of healing, it was probably done not long after the abduction.

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The team is huddling in the room set up for them at the police station each disclosing whatever information he or she had been able to glean thus far.

Hotch: So he dresses them but not in their own clothes?

Morgan: Right. They were dressed like they were going to class or meeting friends for lunch. Casual jeans and a t-shirt. Nothing special but really nothing to tell us much. If this had to do with risqué clothing, they'd be dressed more conservatively when found so I don't think this is anything to do with morality or the implied immorality of the club scene.

Hotch: Reid, what can you tell us about their injuries?

Reid: Every one of them suffered trauma consistent with manual strangulation. Their hyoid bones were broken. There was nothing additional done to the women left at the original scene. Killing them was just a means to the end of getting the other one away. The kidnapped victims which seem to be the true targets were repeatedly raped and branded.

Prentiss: Branded?

Reid: There was a brand depicting a heart with an arrow through it on the backs of their necks.

Prentiss: Wait, you called the kidnapping victims the intended targets but if all he wanted were the brunettes, why not just find women who were alone? There are always plenty of risk takers in that sort of environment.

Rossi: He's getting something out of that first kill. We figure out what and we can probably catch him.

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End file.
